The Maria la Gorda International Diving Center is located on the far West of Cuba on what is known as the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province around 180 miles (300KM) from Havana. Getting here is pretty easy, the roads are both well paved and extremely scenic, bringing you through rolling hills, lush tropical landscape and sleep villages. The drive to Maria La Gorda should also be added to the “World’s best Drives”. But here we are concentrating on Dives and not Drives. Maria La Gorda is perhaps the world’s best diving spot, with an immense black coral reserve, the most colorful and exquisite fauna and at least a hundred sunken pirate ship stories.

The name itself is apparently derived from the fable of a beautiful lady abandoned by pirates in the area; she survived and decided to take advantage of the favorable geographic location of the coastline site and its propensity for visiting pirate vessels, ominously roaming the Caribbean Sea for refuge, water and food provisions. Of course these legendary marauders were renowned for their tireless admiration for women and “entertainment” so María set up her “Service” in the place that later took her name, offering pirates the female company they searched.